June 17/05 4:49 am - Tour de Beauce: Stage 4a report and full results

Posted by Editoress on 06/17/05
 

Tour de Beauce St Georges, QC

As expected, the time trial has rearranged the general classification at the Tour de Beauce. Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) takes over the yellow jersey from Dominique Rollin (Equipe Quebec), but he is a slim five seconds in front of Nathan O'Neill (Navigators). O'Neill crushed the competition in the 27 kilometre time trial, finishing 52 seconds in front of second place Tuft, with his team mate Jeff Louder giving Navigators third place on the stage and in the overall rankings.

The riders woke up to heavy rain, but by the time the first rider rolled down the ramp, it had backed off to drizzle, and halfway through the field the rain stopped completely. Everyone still had to contend with strong wind, including a headwind on the finishing stretch up a 1.5 kilometre climb. The T-shaped course (with the start/finish at the base of the T) had very little in the way of flat sections, it was either uphill, downhill or false flat.

Bruno Langlois (Jittery Joe's-Kalahari) set the early fast time, and was the only rider in the first twenty starters to go under 40 minutes at 39:48. Alexandre Nadeau (Equipe Quebec) and Oleg Grichkine (Navigators) also managed to squeak under the 40 minute bar, but Langlois was still fastest with half the field through.

Chris Isaac (ItalPasta-Transport Belmire CC) lowered the time by 22 seconds, then Justin England (Health Net) managed a further six seconds, only to be immediately superseded by Cesar Grajales (Navigators). It took stage one winner Martin Gilbert (VW-Trek) to lower the bar below 39 minutes (38:51), but shortly afterwards Christian Meier (Symmetrics) brought in the first really serious time - 37:27.

Meier's time would hold up until yesterday's stage winner, Irish national road champion David O'Loughlin (Navigators) took 8 seconds off, but the O'Neill express was right behind, taking a staggering 1:55 out of O'Loughlin.

"It was a tough course" agreed O'Neill, "but I knew I could do well on it. I was pretty confident (of winning the stage), the only question was whether I could take enough time for the jersey. I had a little bit of trouble with my gears out there at one point, and had to back off, but it's hard to say if that would have made any difference. But this way it is better - they (Symmetrics) have to defend for the next three stages. I think I'll be sleeping better than him (Tuft) tonight!"

Tuft was the fifth from last starter, and rode a steady, consistent ride, with the help of some borrowed technology from a team mate.

"Pinner (Andrew Pinfold) has been using an SRM, and we put it on my bike. I rode it (the stage) on wattage, and just tried to keep a steady output for the entire way. It was a hard race out there today. The wind, especially the headwind on the way back to the finish, meant you couldn't back off at all. All you could do was try and maintain your pace and be consistent. By the end I was lightheaded from the effort."

Louder was the next rider after Tuft, but he was nearly 30 seconds slower, and the remaining three riders David Krupa (Paged-MBK-Scout), Mark Walters (Navigators) and Rollin - were well off the pace.

While Tuft and his Symmetrics team were happy to be awarded their first ever UCI leader's jersey, Tuft also expressed concerns about having to defend the jersey.

"It's great to win the jersey, don't get me wrong! But, this is going to be hard, especially with two hard stages still left (plus the criterium tonight). We'll just have to be extra alert."

Race Notes

- Meier's strong ride moves him closer to Espoir leader Brandon Crichton (ItalPasta-Transport Belmire CC), who finished 18th on the stage, but he is still 2:04 back.

- Ryan Roth (Team Canada) slid out at the first turn, and Tuft nearly went down in the same spot.

- Tonight is the 40 lap criterium in downtown St Georges. This stage is always criticized by the leading teams, because of the potential impact a crash, mechanical or well-placed breakaway can have on the GC. With the concerns over rain, there have been calls to have the stage not count in the GC (as happened in 2001), but so far officials are planning on keeping the stage as part of the general classification.